Products to be transported and/or stored often are packed within a box or other container. In many instances, however, the shape of the product does not match the shape of the container. Most containers utilized for transporting products have the general shape of a square or rectangular box and, of course, products can be any shape or size. To fit a product within a container and to safely transport and/or store the product without damage to the product, the void space within the container is typically filled with a packing or cushioning material.
The protective-packing material utilized to fill void space within a container is often a lightweight, air-filled material that may act as a pillow or cushion to protect the product within the container. Many types of protective packaging have been used. These include, for example, foam products, inflatable pillows, and paper dunnage.
In the context of paper-based protective packaging, rolls of paper sheet are crumpled to produce the dunnage. Most commonly, this type of dunnage is created by running a generally continuous strip of paper into a machine and then cutting the crumpled sheet material into a desired length to effectively fill void space within a container holding a product. Typically, paper material is crumpled longitudinally so as to form a long strip of dunnage having many folds or pleats. Because the paper has fold spaces and/or pleats, the crumpled paper can be very effective at protecting and cushioning a product contained within the container, and may effectively prevent damage to the product during transport and/or storage.
Various machines for dunnage conversion have been developed. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2009/0023570 discloses a machine for converting sheet material into a dunnage product. The machine includes a forming assembly for shaping the sheet material into a continuous strip of dunnage having a three-dimensional shape, a pulling assembly for advancing the sheet material through the forming assembly, and a severing assembly for severing the dunnage strip into a severed section of dunnage.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2009/0082187 discloses a dunnage conversion machine that converts a sheet stock material into a multi-ply dunnage product. The machine includes a feed mechanism that advances a sheet stock material and a connecting mechanism downstream of the feed mechanism that retards the passage of the sheet stock material by feeding the stock material therethrough at a slower rate than the feed mechanism. The connecting mechanism connects multiple overlapping layers of sheet stock material together as they pass therethrough, including connecting at least one crumpled sheet to one side of another sheet.
Each of U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,258,657, 6,783,489, and 6,019,715 disclose cushioning conversion machines that convert material from a stock supply roll to dunnage. These patents disclose a cushioning conversion machine that converts a two-dimensional stock material into a three-dimensional cushioning product. The machine generally comprises a housing through which the stock material passes along a path; and a feeding/connecting assembly which advances the stock material from a source thereof along said path, crumples the stock material, and connects the crumpled stock material to produce a strip of cushioning. The feeding/connecting assembly includes upstream and downstream components disposed along the path of the stock material through the housing, at least the upstream component being driven to advance the stock material toward the downstream component at a rate faster than the sheet-like stock material can pass from the downstream component to effect crumpling of the stock material therebetween to form a strip of cushioning. Additionally, at least one of the upstream and downstream components includes opposed members between which the stock material is passed and pinched by the opposed members with a pinch pressure; and a tension control mechanism is provided for adjusting the amount of pinch pressure applied by the opposed members to the stock material. The machine may include a turner bar to enable alternative positioning of a stock supply roll.
The cushioning conversion art would benefit from improvements in the machine shown in such application, and such improvements may have applicability to other cushioning conversion machines as well.